


In The Air Tonight

by thedeviltohisangel



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedeviltohisangel/pseuds/thedeviltohisangel
Summary: She cherished her new last name. Cherished the memory of Bruce offering it to her. The memory of receiving it. Physically shedding the past and embracing her future. One filled with love and warmth and all of the things she had been raised to never want or need. But Bruce didn’t mind that she kept certain pieces of her old self intact. The pieces of her that enjoyed thrills and excitement and was addicted to adrenaline and walking the line between life and death.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Original Female Character(s), Bruce Wayne/Reader, Bruce Wayne/You
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	In The Air Tonight

She was seething and he could tell. Felt it rolling off of her in waves every time he walked passed. It wasn’t that it was hard to keep her happy. It was just hard to keep her still. 

“Would you mind at least trying to smile?” he asked gently as he completed another lap of socializing.

“No. It would look worse than my scowl.” He hummed and took another sip of his champagne.

“How can I make it better?” Over the years, Bruce had come to pride himself in his ability to discern what was bothering her. To figure it out and make it better in a way that left others amazed. It always made Alfred smile to watch the familiar intimacy that the two had built over time. 

“Unfortunately, you can’t. It’s just one of those days.” They were few and far between ever since she had met him but they never disappeared. He reached down and gave her hand a light squeeze. Sometimes his affection was too much for her on these days. But she still needed to know he was there and understood and ready whenever she was. “Maybe...maybe even a solo kind of night.” She said it with no hint of her previous angst around the edges.

“Is that why it’s one of those days?” The date wasn’t lost on him. To Bruce there were happy dates he kept locked in his head. The day he met her. The day she married him. Her birthday. Alfred’s birthday. And then there were those that were melancholy. The date of his parent’s death. When he first donned the suit. When Wayne Manor burned down. But in the dark recesses of his mind were two dates he wished he could erase. Today was one year since Emilia had dove off the side of a building thinking she was following Catwoman. But it had been an illusion. He didn’t like thinking about it. About the way her body was mangled when he found her. The way his hands shook as he tried to assist Alfred. The way his tears stained her bandages as he cried and prayed and screamed for the days following.

“Yes,” she choked out as she blinked away the tears as she worked through the same memories that he had.

“Then you go solo tonight.” His eyes were molten as they landed on her. Bruce had worked hard to shove away the overbearing nature that he wanted to inhabit. He had sworn at her bedside that she would never leave the Manor again. That she could work with Alfred from the cave every night. Had fooled himself into thinking he could force her into becoming a housewife. He should have known the woman who gritted her teeth at the envelopes addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Wayne would never allow herself to be sheltered away. 

“I love you, Bruce,” she whispered as she allowed herself to indulge with a kiss. 

“I love you even more,” he whispered back, his hand coming to the back of her head so she couldn’t drift far and could kiss him again.

“Mr. Wayne, it’s unfair to keep such a beauty hidden away from the rest of us.” They were pulled from their cocoon by a party goer. Someone who did contract work with Wayne Enterprise she thinks.

“Sometimes we need a moment of solace from all the...revelers,” she said with the fake smile Bruce had asked her to put on earlier. There were some other words she would have preferred to label the party guests at but that wouldn’t have been very polite.

“May I steal you for a dance, Mrs.Wayne?”

“Actually, I-” Bruce started, stepping in to save her from her least favorite activity on a good day.

“This is one of my favorite songs, Mr. Irwin. You picked the perfect time to ask.” She returned the favor, squeezing Bruce’s hand before taking the other man’s arm and letting him lead her to the center of the dance floor. It wasn’t the first time, and certainly not the last time, that Bruce thought about how little he deserved someone like her in his life. Let alone as his wife. He watched her sway and spin and laugh while the entire room watched her. No one except him knew the true pain that was underneath her smile. Hidden in the polite conversation she was making. Needing to be mended over before she broke.

“Mrs. Wayne-”

“Emilia. Please.” She cherished her new last name. Cherished the memory of Bruce offering it to her. The memory of receiving it. Physically shedding the past and embracing her future. One filled with love and warmth and all of the things she had been raised to never want or need. But Bruce didn’t mind that she kept certain pieces of her old self intact. The pieces of her that enjoyed thrills and excitement and was addicted to adrenaline and walking the line between life and death.

“My apologies. Emilia, how does a man like Bruce Wayne snag himself such a fierce companion?” She smirked. It was a question they were asked often. The billionaire could have picked any beautiful girl he wanted. One who would devote herself to being a housewife. Drape herself in jewels and over his lap at every event. Have her legs spread for him once he got home. And understand that once her beauty faded, he would turn her in for a newer model.

“He earns her.” But instead of all of that, Bruce had found her. Found her in the mountains. He thought the League kept her around for her beauty. Assumed she was some sort of concubine for al Ghul. Brutally, he learned otherwise.

“Is that the secret?”

“It is no secret. Shouldn’t we all prove ourselves worthy of the companion we seek? Whether it be through physical gestures or emotional connection?” She supposes he got his wife through material gifts. How dreadful.

“Excuse me, but I believe this is our song.”

“Is mind reading another skill you’ve happened to pick up lately?” Emilia smiled genuinely as her husband spun her in a grand circle and pulled her so close she thought they might become one.

“Can only read yours.” 

“Well, you have my gratitude.”

“Yeah?” She recognized the glint to his eyes instantly, his hand sliding further down her back. 

“Even though coming with you on your plane that day means speaking to strangers and laughing at things that are not funny, I would not take back a single moment.”

“Even the bloody ones?” His tone was softer as his words got more serious. Bruce couldn’t deny that her being with him brought her danger even if she was more than capable of defending herself in the face of it. You never wanted to be the reason your loved ones had sadness behind their eyes. Normally, she was a rock. With and without the mask. You’d never know she was human under all her stoicism. He never wanted to, or felt he needed to, treat her like she was made of glass. He was honest and blunt and didn’t pull his punches when they sparred on the weekends. Maybe he should stop assuming her strength.

“If I was not bloody with you then I would be bloody alone. I much prefer the company.” She smiled up at him and it felt like only the two of them were in the room. Her life was always complicated and always would be. Being with Bruce Wayne wasn’t the reason for her tumultuous inner thoughts or nightmares. They were a part of her. Having him brought more light. Chased some of the dark corners away.

“Look in the sky!”

“I wonder what’s going on!”

“Someone get Jim Gordon on the phone!” They both looked in the direction of the pointed fingers and saw The Bat Signal in the sky. Emilia turned back to say goodbye to her husband and assume her position as host, Mrs. Wayne. 

“Go.” Her face transformed into shock as the word came out of Bruce’s mouth.

“But-”

“We agreed you’d go solo tonight. Nothing changes that.”

“Bruce, that signal means you and all these people-”

“Will be politely asked to leave as soon as possible.” She kissed him with a newfound exhilaration. “Now go. Alfred will be your eyes and ears until I can get down there.” After indulging with one more kiss, Emilia walked out of the gala before picking up her pace towards the library. Her fingers found the three keys with ease and she slipped behind the bookshelf as quiet as a mouse.

“Evening, Mrs. Wayne.”

“Evening, Alfred. What am I running into?” She started shedding her dress and jewelry as the butler pressed a button and a clear wardrobe rose from the water.

“Bank robbery with hostages.”

“Normal robbers or are they in clown masks? Exploding penguins? Riddles?” Nothing was ever simple in Gotham. She had learned quickly that everyone had a gimmick.

“Not yet,” he replied. “Is Master Wayne joining you tonight?”

“No, Alfred, we have guests.”

  
  
  


“How’s it going? She complete recon yet?” Alfred looked to his left as Bruce came jogging into the cave. He was undoing his cufflinks and rolling up his sleeves, out of breath from his hustle to dismiss the attendees and workers so he could make it down to the southeast corner.

“Yes. I’m not that slow,” she teased over the speakers.

“How many? What kind of weapons? The hostages-”

“Bruce. I’ll cut off comms if you don’t breathe and keep quiet.” He dropped his head and stayed quiet so she knew he had heard and would obey. But Alfred noticed the slight tremor to his hands, the way he was tapping the ground with his foot. 

“Why did you agree if you were going to kill yourself with worries, Master Wayne?” he asked as he pressed the button to mute their microphone.

“The way she was looking at me, Alfred...I…”

“Love leaves us powerless sometimes. Particularly when faced by the person we give it to.” 

“4 hostiles, 20 hostages. 2 of them children.”

“Weapons?”

“Fully automatic. Be home in time for a sudsy shower, don’t worry.” Bruce didn’t even have time to apologize to Alfred before she was throwing a stun grenade and gracefully falling from the window of the bank. She appeared to the goons in flashes. Gone before they had a chance to get their bearings on her appearance. She took down two before the effects of surprise wore off, the third leveling his gun at her and the fourth at a hostage.

“Alright, Mrs. Batshit, you pick your life or the boy’s.”

“Shoot me.” Bruce had been silent, doing his best to relax, but her words startled him slightly. He had seen her get out of the most dire of situations but she was standing perfectly relaxed, the gun leveled at point blank range. “Pull the trigger.” And he did. And nothing happened.

“She counts her bullets well, doesn’t she?” Alfred mentioned with a jovial smile.

“Need her to start counting my lives,” Bruce replied as he exhaled. Emilia used their moment of confusion to toss a dagger behind her, piercing the the hand of the final hostile and letting the child break free as he howled in agony. Her leg kicked high and knocked the gun from the one who was planning to shoot her, her fist following him to the ground and succeeding in knocking him out. She turned to finish the fourth but saw he was on his knees as if he was waiting for her. As if he was bowing to her. “What’s this?” Bruce muttered as he pressed to turn up the volume.

“I am honored to be in your presence, my Lady.”

“Remove your mask.” It wasn’t a thug as she had been expecting. But rather a woman. One she knew well. One even she feared. “Shiva.”

“I’ve come to bring you home.” Bruce had many questions as he watched the moment unfold in front of him and had to bite his tongue to prevent them all from tumbling out.

“And if this is my home?” Emilia asked, her hand moving to grip the bo staff that was strapped to her back. Shiva wasn’t who they sent to negotiate. Not with her words anyways.

“Then you know what I must do.” It was at that moment the police breached the bank and their guns were pointed at the two of them.

“Emilia, get out of there!” Bruce called out as her and Shiva seemed in no rush to move from their current positions.

“I look forward to our next encounter, my Lady. Being responsible for your only defeat has taken me far.” It was meant to anger her and would have succeeded in initiating their next death match if it wasn’t for Bruce calling out in her ear. Emilia grappled up through the skylight and out of sight before anyone knew any better.

“Get me everything you can possibly find on that woman, Alfred.”

“Yes, sir. What do you think this means?”

“The past has come for her. And they aren’t taking her.”

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you want to see next from these two!


End file.
